The membrane interactions of pregnanolone, an intravenous general anesthetic steroid, were characterized using fluorescence spectroscopy and monolayer technique. di-8-ANEPPS [4-[2-[6-(dioctylamino)-2-naphthalenyl]ethenyl]-1-(3-sulfopropyl)-pyridinium], a membrane dipole potential (⌿)-sensitive probe, revealed pregnanolone to decrease ⌿ similarly as reported previously for other anesthetics. The decrement in ⌿ was approximately 16 and 10 mV in dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) and DPPC/cholesterol (90:10, mol/mol) vesicles, respectively. Diphenylhexatriene anisotropy indicated pregnanolone to have a negligible effect on the acyl chain order. In contrast, substantial changes were observed for the fluorescent dye Prodan, thus suggesting pregnanolone to reside in the interfacial region of lipid bilayers. Langmuir balance studies indicated increased association of pregnanolone to DPPC monolayers containing cholesterol or 6-ketocholestanol at surface pressures Ͼ 20 mN/m as well as to monolayers of the unsaturated 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoylphosphatidylcholine. In the same surface pressure range, the addition of phloretin, which decreases ⌿, reduced the penetration of pregnanolone into the monolayers. These results suggest that membrane partitioning of pregnanolone is influenced by the spacing of the phosphocholine head groups as well as by membrane dipole potential. The latter can be explained in terms of electrostatic dipole-dipole interactions between pregnanolone and the membrane lipids with their associated water molecules. Considering the universal nature of these interactions, they are likely to affect membrane partitioning of most, if not all, weakly amphiphilic drugs.Pregnanolone (Fig. 1) is a steroid-based progesterone metabolite that is used as an intravenous general anesthetic (Hering et al., 1996). Because of its low solubility into water, it is administered in an oil-in-water emulsion (eltanolone). Hydrophobicity of compounds is directly linked to their membrane partitioning, and thus, pregnanolone can be expected to favor association with lipid bilayers. However, as far as we are aware, no studies on pregnanolone-lipid interactions have been reported. Other general anesthetics such as isoflurane and halothane have been shown to interact with lipid membranes (Cafiso, 1998). Although many different modes of action have been suggested, the exact mechanism of action of general anesthetics has remained unresolved. The proposed mechanisms include interactions between anesthetics and proteins, interactions between anesthetics and lipids, and effects of anesthetics on the lipid-protein interface (Makriyannis et al., 1990;Ueda et al., 1994). Cantor (1997) suggested a mechanism linking the membrane lateral-pressure profile to the action of membrane proteins. The importance of nonspecific interactions mediated by the amino acid residues in the lipid-water-protein interface was highlighted in a recent molecular-dynamics simulation of the effects of an anesthetic on gramicidin channels in membranes (Tang and Xu,...